Puddle of Judd

Judd Winick, 33, must have a thing about green. He’s written fan-favorite story lines for Green Lantern and is finishing a story arc for Green Arrow. Granted, he also wrapped up the green-deficient-but-scary vampire miniseries Blood + Water, but his peers are probably turning that color out of envy over the instant success of Winick’s new Outsiders, whose first issue, featuring a superteam including Nightwing (the grown-up Robin) and cult obscurity Metamorpho, sold out so fast, DC reportedly printed an extra 10,000 copies. (They were snapped up too.) Not bad for someone who, nearly a decade ago, was known only as the too-nice-to-be-real guy on The Real World: San Francisco.

EW How’d you approach creating The Outsiders?

WINICK My marching orders were to create a hip, cool team, so I said, ”All right, half the characters are gonna be new, and I’d also like it to be a little more violent and use a little more harsh language.” And they went for it.

EW What other projects are you working on?

W I’m in development with the Cartoon Network for an [as-yet-untitled] animation series. It’s about a little girl who fights monsters, heavy on the comedy…. This time next year we’ll know if we have a series.

EW You’re like the new king of cartooning. I bet Puck isn’t the king of…what, bike messengers?

W Yeah, it’s weird. It’s been nine years [since the show] and not a day goes by that I don’t go out and someone says, ”Hey, aren’t you the guy from…?” I take in the Real World marathons sometimes, but I’m getting older and falling out of their demographic. There’s a lot more drinking and nudity than when we were on the show. It makes me feel like an old fart or a perv for watching.